Curated by Pablo Robertson de Unamuno
from the 22nd of April to the 22nd of May 2024
Artists: Luiza Spotorno – Simone Smith – YUE Hua – Mary Wheeler – Malwina Postaremczak – Nelly Lena Schmidtlein – Bridget Coderc – Benjamin Juhel – Alex Lo – Alfred Rubin – Shon Kim – Eleonora Cutini – Yoon Kyeong Yang – Sophie Bates – Franck Trebillac – Silvia Lorenzi
VisualcontainerTV is proud to present the latest edition of the Underneath the Floorboards Festival. The festival is dedicated to showcasing the work of artists who express themselves experimentally, innovatively, and non-linearly. The festival includes a video art screening featuring over 16 artists, with a total runtime of over two hours. This screening is a must-see for all video art enthusiasts and researchers.
Part 1
Jaguar by Luiza Spotorno
Jaguar was filmed in an abandoned yet still guarded gold mining site in Minas Gerais, southeast of Brazil. Two performers were invited to activate the space through the cutting and eating of native fruits laid on an old hospital table. The result was a non-documentative polymorphic work that is part-fantasy part-reality, with the lines blurred
THE MöBIUS TRIP by Simone Smith
A road trip to a wedding pushes a dysfunctional family to the brink after their journey descends into a claustrophobic hallucinatory nightmare.
THE MöBIUS TRIP is a darkly intimate and surreal portrayal of a chaotic family unit, confined in their car and fated in their familial roles.
Trace on my Body by YUE Hua
A film about the female gaze and self-acceptance. In spring 2023, a physical illness forced me to re-examine my relationship with my body. Scars, spots, skin, hair, and my unflattering voice, everything belongs to my body.
Shoot and direct animation on 16mm film.
You and Me and Nanook of the North by Mary Wheeler
Experimental Narrative. In the early morning a young woman takes a walk of shame home. With a film stuck in her head, her life begins to take the same shape as the movie she contemplates.
Apple from apple tree by Malwina Postaremczak
The moment when a gesture of care turns into silent aggression. Sisterly love that is secretly ruled by subtle violence. A necessary connection that pulls you down.
Advena by Nelly Lena Schmidtlein
The world Kyria lives in is confusing. The man who was in bed next to her last night is gone in the morning, but he has forgotten something important: his arm. She embarks on a search for the stranger in an abandoned town and gets more and more caught up in this empty and alienated place.
Hither & Thither by Bridget Coderc
The conjunction of the 2nd and 3rd millennia has always fascinated me. I am drawn to the imperfections of video technology from that time, especially VHS. The yellowish tint, saturated lines, fuzziness, and the occasional glitches that run through the tapes. Neglect means dust, and overuse leads to scratches. Just like our memories become distant and otherworldly, VHS cassettes decay over time. When you play an old tape, the picture is not the same, but watching it evokes a familiar feeling.
This awareness is the base on which I created Hither & Thither. I distorted VHS footage from my mother’s archive of a dance festival in 2001. I embraced the video anomalies, rechoreographed the dance, and created an exaggerated sense of scale. I approach my archives with inquisitiveness and playfulness to reconstruct memories and reclaim the sense of awe I used to get from watching VHS cassettes in my childhood.
PART 2
VERTIGO by Benjamin Juhel
Feeling the experience of Los Angeles spaces in the night through the perception of a lonely woman, wandering in the streets, having ritual moments of interiority, and letting go through dance.
Why Do Ants Go Back To Their Nest? by Alex Lo
An auto-fictional experimental film about the filmmaker digging a hole from Toronto to Hong Kong.
KULDE (COLDNESS) by Alfred Rubin
Set in Gothenburg’s first snow, ‘Coldness’ depicts the chilling distance among citizens and their city, as well as between individuals — a lone bassist, a distant harmonicist, dancing lovers by a frozen river, and a girl finding onions on her way home. Narrated by Tarjei Sandvik Moe and Isabella Ølshøj, the film immerses us in the frigid embrace of a Swedish winter. Through glimpses of the characters, we examine their feelings of cold. A bassist plays alone in the street and is answered by a harmonicist from across town, two lovers dance by the frozen river and a girl stumble upon a bunch of onions on her way home.
Narrated by Tarjei Sandvik Moe and Isabella Ølshøj, we linger in the coldness of Swedish winter.
BOOKOLORBAR: Action by SHON KIM
BOOKOLORBAR is an Animation project to combine ‘BOOKANIMA’ and ‘Color Bar’. BOOKOLORBAR experiments BOOKOLORBAR Animation about Action.
Alétheia by Eleonora Cutini
After waking up from what, apparently, seems like a dream in which she asked to change her name, the protagonist loses not only the memory of it, but also her identity. Unable to reconcile with the entity that deprived her of her essence, the only way to find comfort is by taking refuge in nature, an immutable and transcendent being, in it it’s possible to find and know the true essence of the world. The story of losing one’s name clashes with the tumoural presence of the self, the ego that wants everything, that has to be there, that needs to remember.
Escape Room by YOON KYEONG YANG
The essential human desire always exists within.
This obsession and desire are expressed in different situations. Through each door, humans can observe their desires. I would like to express love, knowledge, appearance, sense, and freedom using different technologies. An audience can achieve objectification just by observing and humbly accepting those desires.
4 Seasons of Dates by Sophie Bates
4 Seasons of Dates is an live action video in which two people are set up on a romantic blind date to be recorded. Mimicking the structure of a T.V. dating show, the ‘daters’, are mic’d up and meet live on camera at a food venue in Rotterdam. The frontal camera follows them down the street, as they engage in a conversation whilst walking and consuming their snack. Each date take place in a different season with a corresponding snack. For Summer they had ice cream, Winter – Oliebollen, Autumn – fries and Spring, a hotdog. The four dates are shot on location in Rotterdam over the course of the year. The set up is a genuine attempt to pair people the artist knows or has met recently to find romantic connections. The conversation and body language reveals the ‘daters’ romantic, platonic or disinterest in the other.
Letter From St. Anthony’s by Franck Trebillac
Letter From St. Anthony’s is an experimental film created as a companion piece to support the latest release of the musical duo Amon Tobin and Thys. Blending together experimental dance and whimsical cinematography this film is an ode to the need for freedom.
EPITAPH by Silvia Lorenzi
Elena lives alone in a foreign country while being involved in a toxic relationship, which culminates with her murder by her ex-partner. She will then begin a journey through different emotions, images and memories which will transform her violent death into a peaceful departure from life. Narrated through a visual stream of consciousness, Elena represents the destiny and the voice of many women like her, dying due to femicide every day.
‘Underneath the Floorboards,’ is a platform that shows the best in Video Art, Media Art, Digital Art, Experimental film and Documentary from around the world.